You're reading: Traffic cops ‘forget’ their promise and disturb protesters

State Traffic Inspectorate officers continue to get in the way of maintenance vehicles heading to Maidan in the central part of Kyiv, reports Radio Liberty with reference to one of the Maidan commanders, MP from the UDAR Party Serhiy Averchenko, who briefed at the Headquarters of National Resistance.

“The problem has not been solved. The traffic police is blocking the
maintenance vehicles that deliver firewood and food and take out the
trash. Yesterday, the acting chief of the city traffic inspectorate
promised to quit interfering with our cars, but the obstruction
continues,” Averchenko said.

“And so our actions at the State Traffic Inspectorate head office
will take a more radical turn. They are getting in our way all the time
and we are wasting our time struggling with traffic cops,” Averchenko
added.

The State Traffic Inspectorate explains Maidan’s delivery problems by
the need to have a special permit that allows trucks and special
transport to enter the city center. Therefore, traffic police officers
constantly stop vehicles carrying firewood and food and maintaining bio
toilets on Maidan.

At the same time, the Automaidan activists who went on to a Popular
Assembly in Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyy on Saturday were stopped three times
(once on the way back).

One participant, Oleksiy Hrytsenko, told Ukrainska Pravda that the
traffic police stopped the orange car of Automaidan leader Serhiy Koba
three times. The first time, the car’s registration number was
supposedly not in the database (it was found after only 40 minutes). The
second time, the emergency lighting was reportedly not registered, and
the car was released about 50 minutes later. The third time, the
activist was stopped on the way back because the car allegedly was
wanted over an unpaid fine. They let the car go 1.5 hours later after
Koba promised to see the State Executive Service.

Original in Ukrainian on the Ukrainska Pravda website:

http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/01/4/7009028/